General Motors’ ambitious plans for the electric vehicle industry could help boost the operations of a leading utility company with an announced partnership Tuesday morning.
What Happened: A collaboration between General Motors Co (NYSE:GM) and PG&E Corp (NYSE:PCG) was announced Tuesday morning.
The partnership will see General Motors electric vehicles used as backup power sources for PG&E customers.
“We are really excited about this innovative collaboration with GM,” PG&E CEO Patti Poppe said. “Imagine a future where everyone is driving an electric vehicle – and where that EV serves as a backup power option at home and more broadly as a resource for the grid.”
The two companies will work together to test using electric vehicles as “on-demand power sources for homes in PG&E’s service area.”
Bidirectional charging technology will be used in the test, linking an electric vehicle to a customer’s home.
“GM’s collaboration with PG&E further expands our electrification strategy, demonstrating our EVs as reliable mobile sources of power,” GM CEO Mary Barra said. “Our teams are working to rapidly scale this pilot and bring bidirectional charging technology to our customers.”
Tests are expected to begin on the vehicle-to-home pilots in summer 2022. Pilot testing will include several GM electric vehicle models. Large customer trials are expected to follow by the end of 2022 following a successful pilot program.
Related Link: Why New PG&E CEO Patricia Poppe Could Help Restore Trust In Company, Stock
Why It’s Important: Electric vehicles could play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Bidirectional charging could help improve electric resiliency and reliability, according to the companies.
“Not only is this a huge advancement for electric reliability and climate resiliency, it’s yet another advantage of clean-powered EVs, which are so important in our collective battle against climate change,” Poppe said.
PG&E is one of the largest utility companies in the U.S. and has over 5.5 million electric customers in the state of California and 4.5 million natural gas customers. The company covers some of the most populous cities in the state including San Francisco, San Diego and Sacramento and a total of 70,000 square miles in the state.
General Motors has a goal of having 1 million electric vehicles by the year 2025. The company’s Ultium Platform is providing the ability to scale for different price points in the EV market.
PG&E has also partnered with BMW (OTC:BMWYY) for a similar vehicle-to-grid deal.
California is home to 320,000 electric vehicles, representing around 20% of all electric cars in the U.S.
By utilizing vehicle-to-grid, PG&E could help boost its power grid and prevent overloads and potential blackouts from happening in the future.
GM, PCG Price Action: General Motors shares are up 2.76% to $40.93 on Tuesday.
PG&E shares are down 0.29% at $10.48.
